


Good Noises

by Pig_catapult



Category: Baccano!, Original Work
Genre: Accidental Tickling, Affectionate manhandling, Anxiety Attacks, Background Polyamory, Briar is a switch, Briar is from a faux-medieval fantasy world, Chane and another person's OC are also in the polycule here, Cultural palm sexualization, Death scars as birthmarks, Enthusiastic Consent, Felix is a dom, Felix is a masochist in bed, Felix is trans but alchemy rendered physical transition trivial in backstory, Gentle Sex, Graphic scar descriptions, In-progress trauma recovery, Intercrural Sex, Interrupted scene, M/M, Non-sexualized nerve spasms, Pocket dimension death game in backstory but don't worry about it, Praise Kink, Praise as part of continued effort to heal Briar's abysmal self esteem, Prosthetic ear, Scar Play, Scratching, Sensitive Scars, Severe trauma in backstory, Spierce is another person's OC and is only mentioned in this fic, Subspace, Tongue in scars, Visible pulse mentioned, because honestly that should be small potatoes compared to what alchemy actually does in canon, deep scars, handjobs, implied aftercare, sheathed knife as lingere but no knife play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:00:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24553534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pig_catapult/pseuds/Pig_catapult
Summary: With the FF half of the MMFF polycule off on a date, Felix uses the one-on-one time to address Briar's anxiety about being vocal in bed.(Version 2.0 after an extensive but non-total rewrite)
Relationships: Felix Walken/Briar Fogbanks, Felix Walken/OMC





	Good Noises

Felix had a plan. With Spierce and Chané out on a date of their own, he and Briar had the house to themselves for a few hours. He didn’t want to put Briar—an anxious man at the best of times—on the spot when the four of them were together, so now would be a perfect time.

Felix hadn’t dreamt Briar. They’d met in a place outside his dream, and gained a mutual appreciation of each other that had blossomed into something more. Briar’s dreamers had hated him to the point of cursing him, so Felix didn’t feel even slightly guilty about taking him home. Briar had fewer than zero objections, had grown close to Spierce during their adventure as well, and really hit it off with Chané once they got back. Felix and Chané had already known and been interested in Spierce beforehand, but it wasn’t until a confused skeleton demon from yet another world naively asked why Felix would need to choose just one that Felix realized that polyamory was an option. Adding Briar to the relationship just made sense after that.

Right then, Briar was rearranging the living room to cover a blood stain while the peroxide worked on it. He’d probably move it all back later when it was done.

With this in mind, Felix dropped himself into the easy chair Briar was in the middle of dragging two feet to the right. He met Briar’s frown with a grin, knowing damn well that Briar wasn’t strong enough to move the chair with his added weight.

Briar gave the armrest another tug anyway. “Felix, what are you do-ING?!”

“Hugging you,” Felix answered, having just hauled him over the armrest and into his lap. He loosely wrapped his arms around Briar while the young man who was actually very old wriggled into a more comfortable position straddling his thighs. He'd never do this with Chané or Spierce, but Briar liked being gently pushed around a little. _Gently_ and _a little_. “You know what I noticed when you bumped your elbow last night?”

As expected, Briar blinked at him with a cutely puzzled expression. “What was there to notice?”

“You make the same anxious lip-biting face when you’re trying to be quiet about pain as you do when you’re trying to be quiet during sex.”

Watching the heat rise in Briar’s face always entertained him; the cursed immortal had significantly more sexual experience than Felix did, but still blushed at the slightest provocation.

He deftly untucked the back of Briar’s shirt to slide a hand up his scarred back without brushing any of the spots that made his spine twitch. “You’d tell me if something hurt, wouldn’t you?”

Briar arched and put his arms around Felix’s shoulders. “Yes. It’s not that.”

“Hmm. And you’re not _scared_ when you do it, are you?” The cursed form of immortality Briar suffered from had completely different rules than the regenerating cannibal type Felix had dreamt up: Briar was trapped in a reincarnative cycle of being murdered between the ages of fifteen and thirty and being reborn nine months later with the scars from his last death, and Fate contorted itself to keep him from dying any other way. To encourage people to murder him, the curse used perception filters to turn any indication of his pain or fear into sensory candy, and painted a big psychic target on his back. The glamour couldn’t make anyone act in a way they didn’t want to, only provide incentive and reward, but it still made protecting him a little more complicated--nothing the rest of them couldn’t handle, of course. Briar wasn’t helpless once attacked, even if fighting wasn’t his strong point, but when someone decided to take the bait, his mind got fuzzy, and it became easier to back him into the kind of corner that took violence to get out of.

“Just scared of making noise,” Briar mumbled. He buried his face against Felix’s neck and spoke softly, just for his ears. “The curse doesn’t affect the… the good noises. I just… I’m afraid of sounding vulnerable. It doesn’t feel safe.”

Well that was no good. Making Briar feel safe was one of his top priorities, and he’d been failing at it without realizing it! Felix hooked an arm under Briar’s rear so he could stand up while holding him securely. Briar automatically wrapped his legs around Felix’s waist and let himself be carried to the bedroom.

“Let’s see if I can do something about that,” Felix said as he laid Briar back against the king-sized mattress and settled on top of him.

Briar’s expression seemed dubious, but not the grumpy sort of dubious he got when he thought he was being dragged into a bad idea. “How do you plan to?”

Felix kissed the tip of his nose. “First, I plan to get you nice and relaxed…” His hands found the buttons of Briar’s shirt and he started to undress him, revealing his belly and the bony planes of his chest. The scars were worst on his left side, where drag wounds from his last death had worn his flesh down and he’d been reborn with nothing but a dusky smear where a nipple should have been. Still, Felix didn’t shy away from them, kissing gentle trails up and down the contours of his torso. Briar had come into Felix’s world carrying a lot of shame and self-loathing from his past traumas, and Felix worked hard to heal him of it, a little bit at a time.

Briar _did_ start to relax, at least until he suddenly shrunk away when Felix’s lips brushed a particular spot on his side. “That tickles!”

“Whoops. Sorry.” Felix flashed a smile, committed that ticklish spot to memory, and let Briar drag him back up by the shoulders for a deep, messy kiss. Those were always the best ones, a wet dance of their lips and tongues that left them both breathless.

They undressed each other, nimble fingers making efficient work of buttons, buckles, even the leather prosthetic on Briar’s left ear. Soon, only three things remained on either of them: the bandages on Briar’s hands and neck, and the sheathed dagger strapped to Briar’s left arm. The latter two would stay on. Felix liked it when his partner stayed armed, and not even he had permission to touch Briar’s neck. Sometimes, Felix might ask Briar to remove that bandage himself, because Briar felt secure enough in the privacy of home to go without it now and then, and being able to _watch_ Briar’s exposed pulse quicken under his ministrations fascinated him even if he couldn’t touch. Today, he thought that might be a bit too much, but the bandages on Briar’s _hands…_

Sitting up to straddle Briar, Felix brought Briar’s left hand up to his lips, kissing each fingertip before straying down. Briar’s home culture considered palms intimate, and the deep grooves and pits of the scars there were too lewd to show in public. To Felix, they were a physical testament to how hard Briar had tried to hold onto life, and Briar liked that narrative much more than the one he’d held previously. Since the nerves had grown and bunched up _around_ the scars instead of being severed, some parts of them were very sensitive, and some of them in a good way.

He carefully started to unwind the bandage, rolling it up as he did so. The last thing either of them wanted was for a stray loop to catch on Briar’s wrist. One by one, the scars became visible, and he rubbed his thumb over the edges.

Briar rolled his hips and sighed softly, front teeth pressing into his lower lip. His blush spilled into the scars on his face in stark red lines, but he boldly reached out to caress Felix’s chest. He loved doing that, ever since alchemy had given Felix the body he always should have had.

Felix started to give Briar’s palm attention with his mouth, kissing the edges of the scars and strategically dipping his tongue into some of the grooves. He knew right where to probe to get Briar to squirm and gasp in all the good ways, but this time he took it slow, massaging circles with his thumbs.

Briar drew his free hand back long enough to loosen the bandages with his teeth. He shook the cloth off of his hand and the bed, then rubbed his newly-bare palm over the coarse red hair of Felix’s thigh. His hand twitched a little, but the spasm didn’t stop him from basking in the physical contact.

“Relaxed?” Felix asked, lightly pressing Briar’s palm against his smile once he was sure he’d melted him.

Briar nodded, even though he worried his lower lip with his teeth, still ready to bite back any stray sounds. He ran his free hand back up Felix’s side, and his puddle-blue gaze seemed to ask _Now what?_

Felix let go of Briar’s hand long enough to change how he held it, lacing their fingers and pressing their palms together. “Secondly, I’m going to give you a pep talk!”

That caught Briar off-guard enough that a word slipped out: “Wuh-what?”

“A brief speech to encourage you.” Since English was Briar’s fourth spoken language, Felix happily supplied a definition. For some reason, this did not make Briar look less confused.

He’d just have to demonstrate.

“Think about where you are.” He pressed the hand he was holding gently down against the bed, and leaned in to nuzzle Briar’s jaw. “You’re in _my_ dream, in _my_ bed, under _me._ Can you imagine anywhere safer?”

Heat rose in Briar’s face again, and he gave Felix’s hand a squeeze. “I can’t,” he admitted, voice soft and husky and still carefully not moaning.

Felix beamed. “That’s because there isn’t one. You’re absolutely safe here, so even if you _sound_ vulnerable, you’re not.”

A laugh bubbled up in Briar’s throat, and he carded his fingers through Felix’s bright red hair. “I see where you’re going with this.”

“Then you should already know what phase three of my plan is,” Felix said, happy as a cat that’d just eaten a canary. “Make some of those good noises for me.”

“I-I’ll try.”

Felix reached between them to give Briar’s cock light, teasing strokes. The shaft was a little asymmetrical, but that just gave Felix a nice place to rub his thumb. He kissed the corner of Briar’s mouth, and a soft, strained squeak answered him. “That’s good. That’s really good. Relax your throat a little more. No-one’s gonna hear it but me.”

Briar tried again. He managed a ragged hum, which seemed promising, but then he tensed up and shook his head. “I can’t, I can’t…”

“You don’t have to.” Sexy plans tossed aside, Felix rolled off of Briar and drew him into a protective cuddle. He rested his chin on Briar’s white-streaked blond hair and hooked a leg over both of his, surrounding but not restraining him. “I’m here.”

Briar clung to him, tightly at first. Felix remembered exactly where to rub his back without causing pain or spasms or unpleasant tingling. The scars there had to be treated more delicately because some of them had been incurred in his current lifetime, with all the underlying damage they implied. Slowly, Briar’s tension melted away, and he snuggled calmly into the embrace.

“What do you want to do next?” Felix asked, keeping his voice gentle so Briar wouldn’t feel pressured to respond if he didn’t have an answer yet.

“I still want to have sex,” Briar said. He pulled back enough to kiss him. “I’ll try to make noise if it feels okay to, but don’t push me about it.”

“Okay.” Felix settled his hand on Briar’s thin hip. “How’d you like it?”

“Any way that’s facing you,” Briar answered. Sight grounded him more than any other sense, and he felt like he needed that today.

“Of course.” Felix nuzzled their noses together. “How about between your thighs? That one has the fastest stop.”

“I like the sound of that,” Briar said. He kissed Felix, and let himself be rolled onto his back again.

Felix settled on top of him and trailed kisses along Briar’s jaw, looking to reinvigorate both of their erections. He rubbed one hand up and down Briar’s arm, thumb navigating between the streaky scars there.

Briar found Felix’s shoulder with his free hand, tracing the muscle contours before digging his blunt fingernails into his back.

Felix moaned and went up for a deep kiss. Ever since Chané had first nicked his ear, he’d realized he liked it when a partner left a mark of their existence on him. Getting a little bit of pain in the bedroom made his world sharper and _realer_ , and Briar was real and eager and under him today. He kissed his way to Briar’s left, partial ear, murmuring the praise and encouragement Briar so acutely deserved for being wonderful and sexy and giving just the right amount of pressure: “That’s right, just like that. Go ahead and claw me up, okay? You’re so good at it.”

A soft, creaking, affirmative sound that might have been a moan slipped from Briar’s throat. He wiggled up against Felix and dragged his nails down his back, leaving thin red lines in their wake.

“Good, good,” Felix purred. “That was a cute noise.”

Being praised so much had a profound effect on Briar in a way that wasn’t just sexual. It helped him settle into that warm, blissful headspace where Felix was right and he had nothing to stay ashamed of because every inch of him was _loved._ His breathing grew unsteady under Felix’s skillful and well-callused hands, and he worked his hips and nails to get more friction between them.

“That’s right, that’s right,” Felix said as he returned his grinding. He took one hand off of Briar to open up the nightstand and fish out the bottle of lube. “Hold still for _just_ a moment, love.”

Physical inactivity during sex did not come naturally to Briar, and his ‘holding still’ looked more like a restless side-to-side wiggle, but he let Felix slip a well-lubed hand between the two of them, and then between his legs.

“I think there might have been a moment there,” Felix joked, having expected about as much. Gently and carefully, he lifted Briar’s balls to lubricate the thin patch of skin on the back of them, before moving onto the other surfaces. Again, the thin patch’s more crowded nerves made for a double-edged sword of sensitivity, and Briar squeezed and rubbed around his hand in anticipation and a little impatience. “I love the face you make when I do this.”

Head tipped back against the pillow, eyes half-lidded, and mouth slightly open to allow the soft, panting gasps his breathing had become, Briar didn’t have any extra noises for him, but he did offer a smile.

Once Felix felt satisfied that everything would be slippery enough for Briar’s comfort, he gave his own cock a few strokes with his slicked hand before sliding it into place. “Do you like that?”

Briar answered with a breathless nod, and pressed his thighs firmly together to make it tight.

“That’s good.” Felix leaned in for another kiss and started to move, taking hold of Briar’s cock to stroke him, too. He hadn’t even known about this kind of sex before Briar had explained it to him, but Briar--and Briar’s well-coordinated thighs--had quickly made it one of his favorites.

With Felix’s mouth covering his own, Briar finally managed a real moan, the first one he’d shared with someone else in a _very_ long time. He squeezed and rubbed with his thighs, and dug his nails into the back of Felix’s neck to get him to go _faster._

Felix got the message, and started kissing along his jaw as he sped up. “Now _there’s_ a sound I like. And everything’s okay; you’re doing really well. I’m right here for you.”

That brought a big smile to Briar’s face. “Thanks,” he mumbled.

They didn’t exchange any more words, except for Felix continuing to sprinkle praise between their kisses, until Felix felt himself getting close. “Dig in those claws for me.”

The harsh drag of Briar’s nails down his back nearly drawing blood sent Felix over the edge. After he finished riding it out, it didn’t take long until he brought Briar there, too. A voiced sigh passed Briar’s lips, and Felix mumbled one last _Good_ before slumping to one side. It still surprised Felix sometimes that he could feel more spent after sex than after spending half a night crawling around the outside of a moving train, not that he was complaining. Afterglow cuddles were the perfect way to recharge. 

Then Briar’s eyes widened and he lurched upward. “I need to clean the duvet.”

“ _I’ll_ clean the duvet,” Felix said, dragging him back down into his arms. “It’s just spunk, so don’t worry about it. It’ll wash out fine, and it's my responsibility anyway. No-one's gonna get mad at you.”

"Okay…" Briar snuggled back against him. “Shower soon? I need to look at your back.”

“Soon,” Felix agreed.


End file.
